Generator Buying Guide
Types, sizing, and where your money actually goes — from someone who’s had his hands inside most of these brands.
The generator aisle is a wall of nearly identical yellow-and-black boxes, and the spec sheets are written to confuse you. Here’s the honest version: pick the type for how you’ll use it, size it with real math, then pick the brand by parts availability — not the sticker price.
Step 1: Pick the Type
| Type | Best For | Trade-Off |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional portable | Job sites, whole-house-essentials backup, budget buys | Loud, heavy, dirtier power |
| Inverter generator | RVs, camping, electronics, quiet neighborhoods | More $ per watt |
| Dual-fuel | Outage backup — propane stores forever | Less power on propane |
| Home standby | Automatic whole-house backup | Installed cost, pro service |
| Solar / battery station | Daily use, indoor-safe, silent power | Capacity costs money |
Inverter units produce clean power and throttle to the load, which is why they sip fuel at half load. Conventional units give you the most watts per dollar. Dual-fuel earns its keep in outage duty because propane doesn’t go stale — fuel shelf life is the hidden spec nobody advertises (more in the Fuel & Run-Time Guide). And battery stations are the quiet newcomer: no engine at all — my own daily driver is one, running an air conditioner on four panels: my solar AC setup.
Step 2: Size It With Real Math
Add up the running watts of what you’ll power, then check the biggest startup surge on top — motors and compressors spike to 2–3× their running draw for a split second. A fridge, some lights, and a window AC is a very different machine than “the whole panel.” The full worksheet with real appliance numbers is here: What Size Generator Do I Need? Wattage Sizing Guide. Buy one size up from your answer — a generator loafing at 60% load lives longer and starts easier than one screaming at 95%.
Step 3: Pick the Brand by Parts, Not Price
Every brand builds a lemon now and then. What separates them is whether you can get a carburetor, an AVR, or a recoil assembly two years later without a scavenger hunt. Here’s where I’ve landed after years of fixing them:
Used Generators: Where the Deals Are
A used generator is usually a stale-fuel victim, not a worn-out machine — which means a $15 carb kit and an afternoon can buy you a $700 unit for $150. Pull the plug and read it, check the oil for milkiness, pull the cord and feel for compression, and assume the carb needs cleaning no matter what the seller says. Shopping used inverters? The Predator 3500 is everywhere on the secondhand market — know its three known problems before you hand over cash. The walkthrough you’ll need is How to Clean a Generator Carburetor.
Generator acting up right now?Run the Fix My Generator diagnostic — pick your symptom and I’ll walk you straight to the fix. →